Thursday, January 12, 2012

To meet your goal of losing 30 lbs. in four months, you need to lose 1.8 lbs. per week. This is a healthy, achievable goal, according to MayoClinic.com, which recommends a loss of one to two pounds per week. To lose one pound, you need to burn 3,500 calories. To do this at the gym, focus on choosing a variety of activities to keep your body challenged. The heavier you are, the more calories you’ll burn during exercise.1Take gym classes that burn the most calories and attend them several times a week. Kickboxing burns about 500 calories an hour, while hatha yoga burns about 300 per hour. If the goal is weight loss, kickboxing is a better choice. Other high-burning classes include high-impact aerobics or step aerobics, spinning, martial arts such as karate or taw kwon do, and aerobic dance classes.2Exercise for at least one hour every day using a cardio machine. Steppers, climbers and stair machines burn the most calories. If you want to use the stationary bike or the treadmill, pump up the intensity to up the calorie burn. A 155-lb runner will burn about 700 calories in an hour at 6 mph, but at 8 mph will burn 950 calories. A heavier runner will burn more in the same time.3Add a strength training routine at least three times per week. Muscle speeds up metabolism and helps increase calorie burn. The more muscle you have, the faster you’ll reach your weight loss goal. Alternate upper body and lower body days when working out so you don’t overwork your muscles.